Youth Detention Center
Thursday May 22 2008

The group consisted of both boys and girls. Today I made a proposal to the youths to participate in an HIV poster contest. I brought in one our poster that was done by some of the women at York County Prison. The youth’s thought that this poster was awesome, they made some very nice comments about the artist’s artistic abilities. They said that they would love to help do another poster and said they had some creative ideas for how they would do the posters. Because our HIV group is ongoing, some of the youths present today did not have the basic HIV knowledge. I gave them information about HIV and AIDS.This was a refresher course for the others who already had this information. Some very interesting dialogue opened up, Some of the youths mentioned that they were interested in HIV testing. A discussion about abuse came up. One youth asked if he could get HIV if he was beat until he bled. I told him no unless the person doing the beating was cut and blood had gotten into an open wound. One youth in particular was very talkative. He was very interested in doing the poster, but he was not knowledgeable about HIV. He asked lots of questions some that were not related to HIV. I talked with him and tried to answer some of the questions that he had for me. My opinion was that this young man had some venting he wanted to do and it was coming out in the discussions. The staff was really helpful in pulling him away from the group briefly to talk with him about his many interruptions, which was very annoying to the others. Mr. Mark, a staff member, said that he would supply the youths with the materials needed so that they could do the posters. I left the poster that I brought in so that the youths could get some ideas. Monday I will be back in to check on the progress the youths are making and answer any questions that they might have.

Jaceita M. Chilton Walker A.A. HIV Prevention Educator   

Monday May 12 2008
Youth Detention Center Detention Side

The group consisted of both boys and girls. Today I read an article to the youths that was printed by the New York Times, the newspaper examines an Internet game called Pos or Not. This new Internet game aims to increase HIV/ AIDS education and awareness. The website posornot.com shows photographs and short biographies of men and women age 21 to 30, asking visitors of the site to determine if each is HIV positive or negative. This site was launched in Late April and was played about 5.1 million times by 400,000 people during its first three weeks. The message is that “you can’t judge someone’s virus status by looks, occupation or taste in music.”  MTVU, MTV’s college network and the Kaiser Family Foundation, in partnership with POZ Magazine, launched the Web site. Because the class does not have access to the Internet the youths had to look at photos that I printed out along with reading the biographies of participants. The group was surprised at the participants HIV status. They seemed to think that they could tell if a person was infected with HIV. The truth was they got more than half of the people’s HIV status wrong which proved to them that they can’t tell a person’s status by looking.
During this game, HIV positive participants talk about when they first learned the disease has affected them. The game also provides information about HIV prevention as well as local HIV and sexually transmitted infection resources from the CDC. All one has to do is put in their zip code and this information is available. The news article makes reference to the number of individuals who are infected with HIV who don’t even know it. They say it is one in four individuals. One of the youths told me that if HIV was like other infections that show symptoms, like chickenpox or herpes, maybe people would be more cautious when they become sexually active. The group really liked this game they thought it was fun and they were very interactive. 

Jaceita M. Chilton Walker A. A. HIV Prevention Educator

Youth Detention Center
Monday May 5 2008
Detention Side

Today the group consisted of all boys. The topic today was on STI and HIV mainly focusing on oral sex. Alarming statistics have shown that most teens don’t consider oral sex a sexual act. The youth’s were told that oral sex has become a widespread practice among adolescents. I read a report to the youths revealing the staggering facet that 40% of 10th-graders engaged in oral sex in the past year, with a quarter reporting three or more partners, according to a survey in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. The report said that young women like oral sex because it preserves their status as virgins and that oral sex won’t result in pregnancy. They also think it carries little risk of HIV or other STDs.

A 2003 University of Wisconsin study found that 78 % of new cases of genital herpes were caused by a virus found chiefly in the mouths of 16- to 21-year-olds. An even more sobering study from Johns Hopkins linked certain strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) to head and neck cancers.  Performing oral sex on more than one partner in the previous year increased the risk of contracting this untreatable STD. The youths were alarmed at this information. Some of the youths said that they knew of friends who were infected with an STD or HPV. Some of the youths said that they were not ever going have sex again just the thought of having an STD of the mouth was gross. As we continued discussing STI some of the girls revealed that they heard that there is a new vaccine out that will protect them from HPV. The information is true but the fact is that the vaccine will only protect the women and only for certain strains of the HPV virus. There are several strains of the virus that cause HPV and the vaccine will not provide total immunity from being infected. I told the youths that there are individuals who have contracted HPV even after they have had the vaccine. The youths were told that to avoid the risk of and STD or HIV they would have to use condoms consistently and with each sexual encounter including oral sex.

Jaceita M. Chilton Walker A.A. NRCMA HIV educator

SISTA
April, 2008
SISTA (Sisters Informing Sisters About Topics on AIDS) group activity was like a pendulum during April.  My co-facilitator, Jaceita Walker, and I found it impossible to form a cohesive group.  We did not have a minimum of 6 members to form SISTA. Some women could not fulfill the time requirements.  Other women were not ready to look at their risky sexual behaviors.   Many women who wanted to attend, had already graduated from a previous group! They loved the camaraderie.  We encouraged these women to continue meeting with one another and not lose the friendships and support they have built.  Jaceita and I still deliver  HIV/AIDS education to individuals, while pursuing candidates for our new SISTA group.  Our quest continues…

Mary Dorm, B.A.

YDC Monday April, 30 2008

Today’s group consisted of both girls and boys. No new material was presented today. This lesson was a review of HIV infection and transmission. There were some new youths in the group who may not have had HIV education elsewhere, so the overview also gave the former residents of YDC a chance to educate their peers.  I asked the youths to name the 4 body fluids that HIV is found in. The youths took turns answering the question; the answers were blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. I told the youths that HIV was concentrated in the body fluids in this order. For example there is more concentration of HIV in blood than there is in vaginal secretions. One of the youths said that HIV was transmitted through saliva. I redirected the question to the group. Another member of the group said that you can’t get HIV through saliva or spit. He said that a person would have to drink gallons of spit to get infected. This answer showed me that the group was paying attention because in the past some of the youths said that you could get HIV from saliva.

Next, I asked the youths how HIV is transmitted. The answer was unprotected sex and sharing needles. I reminded the youths that babies and even adults can get HIV through drinking breast milk. 

Next, I asked the youths when a person gets an HIV test when does he/she need to come back for the second test. The youths were stuck on this answer. I asked them if HIV shows up in just one single test. One youth said no that you need to come back for a second test.  I told them that this is what is known as the window period. When a person has a negative test they have to come back for another HIV test because the body does not start to produce HIV antibodies for 3 to 6 months after they have been infected. So if a person was recently infected with HIV, the test results may be negative because their body did not make enough antibodies to show up in the first blood test.

Overall I was impressed at the group’s ability to remember the things that they learned in groups over the past few weeks. The goal is to eventually have the youths educate their peers on HIV infection and transmission. Apparently this is happening because according to the staff, conversations and questions come up about HIV infections when I’m not there. One of the staff said that they wanted me to answer a question that he and a youth had in regards to HIV. That gave me assurance that when class is over HIV is still on their minds.
                                 

Jaceita Chilton- Walker N. R. C. M. A. HIV/ AIDS Educator